NASA writes: “Did you know you can see the International Space Station from your house? As the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it.”
And now, it turns out, there’s a service that will help you do just that: It’s called Spot the Station, and it’s provided free by NASA.
Simply head here and provide NASA with your location and email/text address. They’ll then ping you when the space station next passes over your home.
Happily, NASA will only notify you of “good” sighting opportunities – that is, “sightings that are high enough in the sky (40 degrees or more) and last long enough to give you the best view of the orbiting laboratory.”
On a related note, don’t miss our post from Friday:
Astronaut Don Pettit Demystifies the Art of Taking Photographs on the International Space Station
I can’t wait!
So funny how this is making the rounds these days. There is heavens-above.com, and literally dozens of apps for any smartphone platform that will compute these things for you and notify you of possible sightings, not just for the ISS, but also Iridium Flares and other bright satellites. This thing by NASA is clearly aimed at the generation for which e-mail and text messages were the ultimate achievements of information technology, not to be replaced by anything else in their lifetime.
And there’s @Twisst on Twitter – follow it and if you have your location in your profile it tweets you when there’s a good viewing chance coming up. Been following it for a year now.
great just great
I got a notification saying “SpotTheStation! Time: Tue Jan 08 7:00 AM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 87 degrees, Appears: SW, Disappears: NE” but the ISS tracker showed that the ISS was nowhere near my location at the time I was told I could see it.
Looking forward to seeing iss
Please notify when the space is visible in Tennessee
I want to see the station